Want To Start A Business But Don't Know What Type? TAKE THE QUIZ To Find Out

English: Mission: STS-41-B Film Type: 70mm Title: Views of the extravehicular activity during STS 41-B Astronaut Bruce McCandless II, mission specialist, participates in a extra-vehicular activity (EVA), a few meters away from the cabin of the shuttle Challenger. He is using a nitrogen-propelled hand-controlled manned maneuvering unit (MMU). He is performing this EVA without being tethered to the shuttle. The picture shows a cloud view of the earth in the background. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m always on the lookout for new technology. Not in terms of expensive big-time technology, but everyday little solutions that make my life, and job, easier. Somewhere along the line, though, I realized that I couldn’t test out every piece of technology myself. I enjoy finding new technologies and sharing them with my team, but it just wasn’t sustainable.

That’s when I realized that I could lead my team in finding the best and most useful technologies on the market.

Perhaps you feel the same way. Finding a great piece of technology can really improve your efficiency, but going through the work to find that technology can take forever. For example, I use the easel.ly online infographic tool a lot. It allows me to create clean images or infographics in about half an hour. But do you know how many technologies I had to test drive to find the one that I liked the most? Quite a few.

Once you learn to lead your team in finding these technologies, though, you no longer need to test drive multiple technologies. You can simply ask people on your team what works best. Or (even better) they’ll pass along the technology to you before you even get a chance to ask.

Here’s how to do it.

Share New Technology with Your Team
Make it a point to share a new piece of technology once a week. When you do this, explain how to use the technology and what makes it so important. For example, imagine you found a simple program that allows you to take notes on your computer, but that also syncs those notes to your phone. Teach your team how to use it and explain how you’ve found it useful.

Invite Your Team to Share Technology with You
Let your team know that you’re always searching for the most effective technology on the market. Encourage them to bring new technology to you. You could even set up a submission system and share the technology you like the best in your once-a-week meeting.

Create a Public Forum for Team Members to Share Technology
I suggest creating a chat room that all your employees can use during the day (using any IM services already on the market). Encourage employees to share technologies with each other. Not only will you get to hear about new technologies, but those technologies will also pass a “peer review.” Any technology submitted into the chat room will likely be tested by various employees, giving you a well-rounded view of its effectiveness.

Why is This Important?
Innovation displays itself in many forms, including the way you operate within your business and the technologies you use to do that. When you encourage employees to continually search for the best, and to adapt accordingly, that attitude bleeds over into other areas of their work. If you do this long enough it will become part of your brand. You’ll become known as a leading organization in your field.

Second, you never know what you’re missing. There are too many technologies out there for you to know them all yourself. There could be a much more efficient way of accomplishing your task, and you just don’t know it. Enlisting your employees to seek out better technology increases your chances you’ll actually find it.

This approach gives you the chance of discovering something very useful without investing much time it in. Why not try it today? You might be surprised at what you find.